Continuum Wiki:Article Guidelines
This guideline page will detail the requirements in an article and an edit to be considered appropriate. General *Articles or pages made must all be directly related to the series or the wiki. *Before creating new pages, make sure it does not already exist by searching for it or asking an admin if in doubt. *Content on character pages should only be summarized. Details should be added to the episode pages. *Other pages should only be linked on its first use and only once per section/heading in a page. If the article is considerably short, do not keep linking anymore. *Italicize the show title and its episodes in articles; enclose in quotation marks in infoboxes. *When moving pages, if it is a major page you are moving, make sure a staff member has approved of it, particularly since sometimes, if you are redirecting to an already existing page, a delete is necessary. If you don't think an approval is necessary, at least make sure that the move is reasonable, like if it's misnamed, misspelled, or if there's a better name for it. Page Format *To see what the proper format for a character page should be, go here. *To see what the proper format for an episode page should be, go here. *Also check out the Manual of Style. Grammar and Spelling In order to communicate information effectively and to maintain a professional touch, proper use of grammar and spelling is vital. Edits with poor grammar and misspellings may be undone, so please take a moment to re-read what you have written and use spell check. Cite your references Although citations can cause some frustration for the writer, the process is simple and necessary to differentiate between fact and fanfiction and can also help readers determine when exactly an event first occurred or was referenced in the series. In the case of real-world information, it is vital to distinguish fact from opinion, rumor, and vandalism. References may be a reference to which episode a certain fact was established, or a linked reference to an external source about facts that are not stated on the show. Unnecessary content Fanfiction stories, non-canon topics, opinions, assumptions and theories, rumors, and other false information do not belong in articles. However, you are free to share these through blogs or your user pages. Editing Conflicts Since we allow anyone to edit, it follows that we assume that most people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it. Edit wars are common on wikis, so hopefully, this will help you understand every users' stands. There are always two sides to wars, and to both sides, the other one is bad, and the other is good. In the wiki, let us assume that the edit war is because of differing opinions among users. When a user does not agree with something another user has written, they tend to change it (even revert it), and the user who has made the edit may end up offended or protective of his/her edit. If this is the case, the users must try and settle the issue like adults on their own message walls, instead of continuing the edit-undo cycle with edit summaries that get harsher and harsher. This can avoid misunderstandings and prevent problems from escalating. If the issue still persists, then it is time for an administrator to interfere (or you could, you know.. approach us). If a consistent edit seems to be wrong and more harmful than helpful, and has no facts to base on, approach an admin for immediate action. Particularly, avoid reverting good faith edits. Only resort to reverting on very obvious vandalism or something that not only you would disagree on. When you can reasonably assume that something is a well-intentioned error, correct it without just reverting it or labeling it as vandalism. When you disagree with someone, consider using message walls to explain yourself, and give others the opportunity to do the same. If there is a problem, it's best to ask the user about the issue first, then take any additional steps if need be. For more information, read the Policies page. Minor Edits Minor edits are edits that are considered nonconstructive by a large group of users. Typically, the staff decide whether or not a string of edits are constructive or not. Every user makes a minor edit at one point; in fact, since minor is a very subjective word, every single user has a different opinion on what minor edits are. However, when a user is making several minor edits to pages with intent to increase their edit count, they are very likely to get banned. Making the occasional minor edit is okay, particularly during clean-up periods of the wiki when admins often make some minor edits, but when staff notice that a user has a pattern of making minor edits, it causes suspicion. Sometimes, users will cheat their way into getting more badges or edit counts by making useless edits just to raise their edit count. This is worthy of a ban. It's just as bad if a user is trying to get more edits for brag-worthy purposes. In general, an edit should be helpful and constructive, not minor and useless. A good strategy to avoid getting banned for minor editing is thinking about whether or not your revision is beneficial to the wiki before you publish it. Is it improving the quality of the article? Is it making the wiki look more organized? Will other users think the same way? Protection Administrators can protect and unprotect pages. Protection of a page or image can mean that a non-admin cannot edit or move it. Full protection is when only administrators (sysops) can move or edit a page. The majority of pages on all Wikia should remain publicly editable, and not protected. Pages may, however, be protected on certain grounds, particularly maintenance, and other reasons statied below. Uses *Protecting highly vandalised pages, such as the main page on busy wikis. *Protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism or persistent edits by a banned user. *Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an edit war, upon request. *Protecting documents such as minutes or policies that have gone through a formal approval process. *Protecting the often-used texts in the MediaWiki namespace (these are protected automatically). *Maintaining the integrity of the site's logo and favicon. *Maintaining the integrity of key copyright and license pages. *Maintaining the integrity of past press releases. *Avoiding mass changes made throughout the wiki when templates are edited, hence several major templates are protected. If anyone wants to suggest changes to templates, take it to its talk page or an admin's message wall. Less than full protection This is an example of what you might do temporarily if several different IP addresses are vandalizing a page. This allows long-time users to edit, but protects a page from Anonymous users and newly registered ones. The MediaWiki software now lets administrators pick several options short of full protection. These are good for temporary protection, particularly when resisting persistent vandalism or repeated spam. These are also used to reduce vandalism on high-profile pages (such as featured articles or highly used templates), while still allowing as many legitimate users as possible to edit.